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- Independent wrestler Devon Nicholson, who also goes by the name Hannibal, is possibly facing charges after a brutal attack on a referee.
- Nicholson stabbed referee Lando Deltoro at least a dozen times in the head with a spike after choking him out in an incident that all involved say was completely unscripted.
- Read more news about wrestling here.
Independent wrestler Devon Nicholson, who also goes by the name Hannibal or The Blood Hunter, left a referee seriously injured Saturday night at World Class Pro Wrestling’s “Christmas Star Wars” show in Irving, Texas.
Following his match with Carly Colon, who goes by the name Carlito, Nicholson attacked referee Lando Deltoro, stabbing him in the head multiple times, resulting in Deltoro having to be hospitalized and requiring surgery for a torn artery.
In the video, Nicholson (Hannibal) is seen choking Deltoro unconscious and stabbing him in the head with a spike at least 12 times and perhaps, according to one eyewitness, up to 20 times or more.
A man claiming to be the other referee in the video, who actually officiated the match, wrote on Reddit, “Bloodhunter/Hannibal refused to listen to me, and I could tell something was off, and immediately told Carlito to gtfo and finish the match. Bloodhunter went totally off the hinges and refused to listen to me. He tore the other referee up, then hid the weapon he used to do it. Cops were called, I gave a full statement about what I believed happened.”
He continued, “I told the cops what I thought. I believe it was absolutely assault. He went way above and beyond working. There was no safety on his part. And as a ref, the most critical thing I can offer the people I work with is that I will make sure they are safe, and I feel like I completely failed at that. I should have stopped the match immediately when I noticed something was off. I apologize for that.”
He also stated that Deltoro was supposed to bleed after the match, that part was planned, but what actually ended up occurring was not.
Bloodhunter is to hit 3rd ref with his spike, safely, 3rd ref is supposed to blade, and bleed, and we all meet up in the back, good match, yay.
Instead I look out and see BH wailing on 3rd ref. And I think, this is taking too long, so I go back out. 3rd ref hadn’t starting bleeding yet. So what I believe happened, is that BH got pissed off that 3rd ref wasn’t able to cut himself, so BH did it himself. First he choked the 3rd ref into unconsciousness. He was 100% in seconds. Then BH proceeds to hit him all over the head with his spike. Repeatedly. Without having watching the footage yet, I’m going to guess 20 or more times. Dude was bleeding profusely at this point. The entire time this is happening, I’ve decided this is too much and I was tryin to get BH off the dude. I refused to go into the ring, I absolutely did not trust him. So on the apron, I was pulling on BH’s leg and punching it while screaming at him to stop. Finally, Blaze, his other manager/real life GF gets in and pulls him off.
That’s when I managed to pull 3rd ref out of the ring. I checked on him again here and he was absolutely out and still profusely bleeding. So I immediately run to the back saying to call 911 and I need as many people out there to help me with a) Hannibal and b) 3rd ref as possible, and I requested we try to find any EMT’s.
3 wrestlers, 2 of them with some form of medical background follow me back out. By the time I got back to the back, cops were already there, and I spent the next 45 minutes or so giving my statement to them. I believe Bloodhunter hid his weapon, because as long as he told the cops that the 3rd ref was supposed to blade HIMSELF he was fine, but what ACTUALLY happened was the direct result of Bloodhunters actions.
According to a fan who claims to have been in attendance at the show, “Not sure how much the promotion knew was going to happen beforehand, but once the referee got out of the ring and ringside crew started interacting with him, someone threw up the X sign. Then they started asking for a doctor in attendance to help. Both of these things could have been excessively realistic “working,” but then you realize this is a Christmas show where kids got in free and there were tons of children there. So unless they were trying to terrify little kids and blow the chances of repeat business with all ages crowds around Dallas, they wouldn’t have done all this on purpose. Then an ambulance, fire truck, and four police cars showed up and the announcer asked the audience to make way for paramedics/take an early intermission. You don’t get a fleet of the city’s EMS vehicles and first responders on a Saturday night for a work unless you’re sociopathic, stupid, trying to ruin the business in the area, or a combination of the three.
“This was a real medical emergency. How the ref got there is the question, but there’s no doubt the levels of chaos the segment reached was not intentional on the promotion’s part.”
Fightful reports it is possible that charges will be pressed against Nicholson for his actions.
Wrestler Clayton Bloodstone told Fightful, “They planned a blade spot but Hannibal took it MUCH further. I guess the ref’s blade wasn’t working and Hannibal began stabbing him in the head multiple times. The ref went immediately to the hospital. We all thought he was going to die. Many of the guys in the back were very visibly shaken up from it. Hannibal gave zero f—s. He acted like it wasn’t a big deal. He was in his RV pretty much the whole time before his match. The ref that reffed his match believed he was intoxicated and warned Carlito, who was working Hannibal, to be careful and end the match ASAP.”
Nicholson (who also goes by the name Hannibal on YouTube) later posted a video of the incident to his channel, but has since deleted it.
World Class Pro Wrestling CEO Jerry Bostic posted a statement to Facebook condemning Nicholson and vowing to never hire him again.
On Sunday, Deltoro wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of his head with numerous staples in it, “Recovering at home, still a big fuzzy and pain, yes lots of pain. But I’ll live. Thanks you all for out pouring of love and support . I am a firm believer that if you put good out into the world, good will return to you. #downbutnotout.”
A GoFundMe (which also shows a photo of Deltoro’s damaged head while in the hospital) has been set up to help him with his medical expenses.